Steve Miller, who
introduced Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives,
said it was the “greatest country musicband in the
world right now.”

They were both right.

Stuart, whose new double-album with His Fabulous
Superlatives Saturday Night / Sunday Morning
is just out, proved it once again with an inspiring
acoustic set featuring songs from the country half
of the new set (Saturday Night’s cover of
Charlie Rich’s “Life’s Little Ups and Downs”) and
the Sunday Morning gospel half’s (“Angels
Rock Me to Sleep”), along with other material that
lent itself to the acoustic format.

The set followed a dazzling instrumental display by
former Wings lead guitarist Juber. His original
“Catch” mixed jazz, country and boogie-woogie as
both hands fingerpicked up and down the Martin
acoustic neck. He gave “While My Guitar Gently
Weeps” a nice touch by slapping the strings hard and
then softly; on his own "Cobalt Blue” he
finger-picked with his left fretting hand while
beating percussion on the wood with his right
picking hand.

Indeed, Juber was so good that he played “Won’t Get
Fooled Again”’s opening keyboard figure on guitar,
then threw in a token Townshend windmill in the
middle of the song. When Miller came out to join
Juber, he conceded that he was merely “the guy in
the middle of a music sandwich” and “slowed things
way down for humans to play” on his instrumental
“Slinky,” with the also slowed-down Juber
accompanying. The pair also played Miller’s hit
“Take the Money and Run.”

Miller returned towards the end of Stuart’s set for
“Jet Airliner,” Stuart playing mandolin on the
classic Miller hit’s opening guitar riff while
Miller and Stuart’s own extraordinary guitarist
Kenny Vaughan doubled on acoustic guitar. Vaughan,
incidentally, sang on his country swing tune “Hot
Like That,” while drummer Harry Stinson, who brushed
a single snare slung around his waist, took lead
vocal on the gospel standard “I’m Working On a
Building.”

Encore “The Joker” brought Miller back, along with
Juber, to play on his big hit, after agreeing with
Stuart that “it so needs a mandolin.”

The program was presented in collaboration with the
Met’s Department of Musical Instruments and in
conjunction with the exhibition Early American
Guitars: The Instruments of C.F. Martin, on view
through December 7, 2014. The exhibition is made
possible by the Martin Guitar Company, whose
instruments were exclusively on display and in hands
on stage.